Antinos' 2017 Thread (Dollywood Finale! - Page 5)

[Antinos]

As I previously mentioned, the five of us headed off to Seabreeze after our grill out. @Jer met us half way through our stay at the park to round off our crew.

Flying Scooters - It's been a long time since I've been on the ones at Carowinds, but these give them a run for their money. Once we were adjusted to the increased speed of these scooters, we were snapping violently and hitting branches surrounding the ride in no time. We might have ridden it a dozen times throughout the evening due to how much fun we were having.

Jack Rabbit - Yet another classic woodie. While this Jack Rabbit doesn't have a standout ejector hill like Kennywood's, it offers a smooth ride and is nicely paced. Can't complain with that at all.

Log Flume - I smartly left my phone with @pkiknex25 who decided not to ride. This flume has a simple layout - a large oval with two tiny dips at the beginning and the big drop at the end. This flume boasts the steepest drop, which scared the tits out of me as I literally floated out of the log before falling back down onto my seat. It doesn't **** around!

Bobsleds - Another gem. Bobsleds is a wacky wild mouse style coaster with plenty of dips and tighter than expected turns. This is another ride on which we took plenty of rerides. We cleverly put @Snoo, @Jer, and Erich in one car and then rotated the rest of us as the fourth person. By doing this, we were able to shave three to four seconds of ride time and nearly overshot the brake run. It was a great time.

Whirlwind - One of the better Maurer Sohne spinners I've been on. We were able to get some decent spinning on it between our two rides.

Overall Thoughts - We spent more time at Seabreeze than we did Darien Lake because we were all genuinely enjoying our time in this tiny park. Like Darien, it's a beautiful park and also has plenty of history to boot. It's one of those places that make me wish I had something like it (RIP Boblo Island) back home.

After leaving Seabreeze we headed to the bar! @ASteelersMidget and Erich took us to an excellent hole in the wall by the park. The place had just enough people and energy in it as well as some great beer and pizza - a great spot to relax at the end of the day.

Our trip continues with a stop by Fantasy Island and hanging out in downtown Toronto. More tomorrow!

 

[Snoo]

Don't forget that we sang Bohemian Rhapsody while riding Jack Rabbit.

 

[ASteelersMidget]

^Or when Marc and I snapped the scooters so viciously at the same time (thanks to a well timed wind gust) you all could feel the ride shake on the opposite side

 

[LiveForTheLaunch]

Predator is actually fab, I even thought so back in 2012. I never understood the hate for it. Darien Lake was so packed (to the point where a top spin had an hour long wait) the first time I went when I was seven, and then when I went again back in 2012 it was literally a ghost town. It isn't the worst park in the world, but certainly not the best; however, I do have the kiddie cred that nobody has been able to get for years

Toronto is a dump... The nightlife and Jay's games are good, but that's about it. I already know that you didn't love Wonderland, but I still disagree about that; the layout is garbage, but other than that, the operations are good and I feel like the park is nice... Was better when Skyrider was there though.

 

[Snoo]

^Or when Marc and I snapped the scooters so viciously at the same time (thanks to a well timed wind gust) you all could feel the ride shake on the opposite side

The scooters had me laughing the entire night, not counting Bobsleds.

 

[tomahawk]

I miss you whores. </3

Didn't mention the views...

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[Hixee]

Yeah, I thought the views at Seabreeze were supposed to be legendary?

 

[Snoo]

Yeah, I thought the views at Seabreeze were supposed to be legendary?

THEY WERE THE STUFF MADE OF LEGEND!!!

 

[Antinos]

Another day, another park. We woke up and departed for Fantasy Island - a park that @ASteelersMidget, @Jer, and I have driven past numerous times, but never had a chance to stop and and ride a coaster that I've heard plenty of good things about.

Silver Comet - We rode the train around to the back of the park where all the rides were and were treated with a nice view of the ride. Unfortunately, many of us had PTSD to Villain. FORTUNATELY, the ride ended up being decent. The run out featured two low hills with plenty of airtime before a turnaround and the first trip back featured a nice double-down. This exciting series of elements gave way to some slow, tall turns which comprised a boring middle third of the ride. The ride had run out of gas by the end so the last few hills didn't provide much excitement. 10 years ago, we all would have thought Silver Comet was a great ride. The ride in its current state is by no means bad. We were satisfied that it's at least smooth.

Crazy Mouse - Another Zamperla spinner. As Kevin and I found out at Beech Bend, some proper application of dynamics could allow us to get some wicked spins, so our group split in half and each of our coaches spun like mad. It was proper fun.

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Overall thoughts - Well...Fantasy Island is kind of a dump. It might as well be a glorified carnival, but unlike Beech Bend, Fantasy Island at least tried in some places with some landscaping. After we left the carnival midway style back of the park, we did see that at least part of the park was quite scenic with a nice pond for canoeing and plenty of shade. Nevertheless, we were more than happy to leave after a few rerides on Silver Comet. At least we got a photo with the "Devil's Hole" before we headed out!

We crossed the border with minimal effort and checked into our Airbnb before heading into downtown Toronto. We got tickets for the CN Tower to see some proper views (that aren't a played out joke) of the city and Lake Ontario. After a bit of time at the tower, we found a place on the waterfront called Amsterdam Brewhouse for dinner. We finished our night at an Irish pub nearby. It was an exciting but chill evening!

How was the "highlight" of our trip? I'll post...eventually...

 

[Hixee]

Love the views from the CN Tower, and the second to last picture!

Toronto looks pretty nice, somewhere I'm thinking about going next year.

 

[Snoo]

I definitely enjoyed Toronto. It is quite the sprawling city, something I'm not quite used to being from the midwest. Definitely worth another visit.

 

[Antinos]

Canada's Wonderland. This was my third overall visit to the park and everybody except @Snoo was revisiting the park as well, but we all rerode everything anyway.

Behemoth - To everybody's delight, Behemoth was hauling serious ass over every single hill. Definitely much more enjoyable than we all remember. Only the first trim was activated and that actually seemed reasonable to us.

Backlot Stunt Coaster - It does stuff.

Wonder Mountain Guardian - The coaster section was super shaky, but it's only for a short bit. The shooter portion was short and the screens were dark so that was kind of disappointing. The finale mostly made up for what came before it.

The Fly - Well, it's smooth. And it's extended. No complaints here.

Vortex - I still like it.

Wild Beast - Gross.

The Bat - Still an excellent boomerang and has a new paint job.

Flight Deck - Oh god it's awful why is it so bad

Time Warp - it's even worse. Why do these things exist? @Snoo's reaction is all you need to know:

Minebuster - People HATE this coaster for whatever reason. It doesn't do anything, but it isn't rough.

Skyhawk - @pkiknex25, Erich, and I went to ride this while @Snoo, @Jer, and @ASteelersMidget went to ride the family creds. Skyhawk is easily my new flat ride. Controlling the ailerons is loads of fun, especially when you're better than everybody else. @pkiknex25 got the most on our ride with 38 rotations. Hopefully more of these show up stateside.

Leviathan - The ride is still great. The drop, the forces, the airtime...it's all great. But after riding so much crap, I was expecting the ride to seem astonishingly good and that simply did not happen.

Dragon Fire - Yeah, it wasn't very good, as to be expected.


Overall thoughts - Whenever any of us go back to Wonderland, we'll be sure to ride the flats next time. While the majority of the park's coasters are garbage, their flat ride selection is fantastic. Knowing Cedar Fair, their next coaster addition will be quality and will certainly transform whatever area of the park it's in. Maybe in a couple more years...

We crossed the border once again with minimal effort and stopped for some buffalo wings in Buffalo, NY. Best wings I've ever had. We made it back to @ASteelersMidget's house and had a relaxing evening before catching some much needed sleep.

There's a few more things to write about from this trip...soon...

 

[Antinos]

We woke up, slowly got ready, said our good byes, and hit the road. We got nearly three hours down the road when we stopped to watch the eclipse on the Pennsylvania - New York border. What an awesome experience. The temperature cooled off a few degrees - enough where one couldn't feel any radiant heat from the sun. Even though we only had a max 78% coverage, our surroundings were noticeably darker than usual. After 30 minutes, we were back on the road for a brief jaunt over to Waldameer.

We literally stopped at the park for two laps on Ravine Flyer II. Even though I tend to say this seemingly every time I reride something, Ravine Flyer II was running better than ever. The ride certainly wasn't ****ing around today - the train's momentum carried us over the bridge twice and up the hill where we flew around the hilltop portion faster than I remember in the past. Excellent!

Of course, we had to stop at Waffle House - it's tradition! We rendezvoused at @Snoo's house one more time before @pkiknex25 and I gave hugs and departed. The two of us drove back to Kevin's place and finally I was on my own for the final leg. I was driving against eclipse traffic for the entire stretch between Louisville and Cincinnati, as many had an absolutely miserable trip back north from Nashville:

And finally I was back - yet another trip came and went and another amazing one it was. I always have an incredible time on these and I can't wait til the next one.


So what now? The past few trips have left me with an unquenchable thirst for wanderlust and hunting down new creds. @pkiknex25 and I have been scouring Coaster-Count's map feature for anything remotely close to us as well as drafting potential future trips (next year and beyond), but unfortunately we're more or less out of options within reasonable driving distance. There is a roller coaster in Michigan (SDC Galaxi) which has been open since '09 and I apparently forgot about...I've literally driven within three miles of it at least 40 times going to and from university (ok, a bunch of those times were in the winter and/or late at night, but the point stands) and I've stayed at a hotel literally a block away from it...I'll be driving past it to go to and from my cousin's wedding in ten days so it could be an easy +1. There is also a +1 at Coney Island in Cincinnati (another Galaxi) if I'm really feeling like it...

Putting the bottom feeder creds aside, I'll write a few more times about Holiday World (I took a quick visit there yesterday and I'll write about it tomorrow) and Kentucky Kingdom. I'm still looking to head up for a proper King's Island visit and I'm still hopeful in throwing something together for Dollywood. But yeah...not too shabby thus far!


Visited:
Cedar Point
King's Island
Kentucky Kingdom
Holiday World
Six Flags Magic Mountain
Knott's Berry Farm
Disneyland
California's Great America
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
Columbus Zoo
Six Flags Over Georgia
Lake Winnie
Beech Bend
Darien Lake
Seabreeze
Fantasy Island
Canada's Wonderland
Waldameer

Hopefuls:
Dollywood

 

[Antinos]

I had worked both days this past weekend so I said **** it, I'm going to Holiday World. So I drove the 70 minute drive to the park on Sunday afternoon.

Raven - For whatever reason, this is the first time I've ridden this ride without feeling like it needed to be longer. Maybe because I was in a rush? It seems to shuffle a bit more than it used to, but it's still wonderful.

Legend - I still don't get how people bash this ride after its retrack. There's only one kinda bad valley and the rest of the ride is fairly smooth. The helix was out of control and the ending continues to be extremely fun.

Thunderbird - despite its short train length, it seems to run better in the back. I'll stick to row four from now on, I guess. I love getting to ride Thunderbird so much - if only all wing coasters were as intense as this.

The Voyage - She's extra brutal this year. I had to tap out after three laps in a row, but it was still worth it.

I spent a grand total of 90 minutes at the park and got two rides on the former two and three rides on the latter two. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday evening.

 

[Mysterious Sue]

I really enjoy these little diary entries. Especially if your return to the same park over the season - it gives a different perspective to the usual one-off epic trip.

 

[Coaster Hipster]

Agree with Sue! It's nice to have short, but accurate impressions on a park

 

[Antinos]

I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying the reports! I've enjoyed writing them more than I thought I would!

Alright, @tomahawk and his wife decided to pay a visit, so I was glad to show them around the area and begin Tom's (extremely longwinded) redemption tour at Kentucky Kingdom. We got lucky with the weather - the remnants of Harvey were rolling through Kentucky and it had just stopped raining when we pulled up to an empty park. Temperatures were still only in the low 60's, but we were ready to ride.

Lightning Run - still super enjoyable, but with the weather it was running a bit slower than normal.

Thunder Run - I didn't notice a whole hell of a big difference between dry and wet. The ride certainly wasn't bad - no shuffling or jackhammering - but it's not really good either.

Storm Chaser - Even with the temperatures being where they were, it still flew through its circuit. I'll have to wait until I reride Banshee and Maverick - it might be moving up in my rankings. Also...that barrel roll drop <3

Roller Skater - Well... @tomahawk has the right attitude to get to 200...I simply shared in the shame despite already having the cred.

T3 - We actually had to come back the next day to ride as T3 was closed on Saturday. Luckily, Meg accidentally bought a 2 day ticket for not much more than a 1 day. It sucked, but this time it wasn't as bad as Flight Deck at Canada's Wonderland.


Yep. Next...we'll see. Maybe this cred back in Michigan...still eye-ing King's Island soonish, surely Holiday World again, and I *might* have figured out a plan for Dollywood. Stay tuned!

 

[Hixee]

Taken me a little while to catch up on these installments. I'm particularly jealous of the post-park food outings that I've enjoyed so many times with many of you guys - it's always such a good laugh and great food. <3

 

[Antinos]

I'm delinquent. @Youngster Joey visited last weekend 15-18th. Of course we went to both Holiday World and Kentucky Kingdom.


Holiday World:

Raven - Just like all the other rides I've had on it this year; exhilarating and swift.

Legend - First lap on Legend during this trip was the smoothest ride I've had on it. Take the time to wait for front row.

Voyage - I finally figured it out. The Voyage kicks my ass so much because the lap bar is set in a different position from Legend and Raven. While the lap bar on the older two sits comfortably on the top of my thighs, Voyage's lap bar sits a few inches back. This differing dimension is just enough to cause my stomach to hit the lap bar as I'm getting jostled around on the ride. Nevertheless, I still can't get enough of it.

Thunderbird - What is there to say that hasn't already been said? Just lovely!

Crows Nest - I finally decided to take a spin on the park's star flyer as I've been wanting to do so for quite some time. It definitely is not a drop tower, but it certainly wants to be. The ride has a section that drops you halfway down the tower and then pulls you back up to the top before lowering you all the way down to the ground. It was pretty fun!

Liberty Launch - Nothing special, but another fun shot drop.



Kentucky Kingdom:

I don't even remember what their drop tower is called, but it's an impatient drop tower. Good!

Flying Scooters - And I've realized that I've been piloting these wrong for the past six years. We had these snapping violently in no time and the operator did not give one single flying ****. It was a grand old time.

Lightning Run - definitely a ride that runs better in good weather. Lightning Run was back to running in its prime form.

Thunder Run - Still not bad, but still not good.

Storm Chaser - I think it's going to jump Banshee in my top 10. It's still blisteringly fast and provides such a thrill in a small package. The barrel roll drop <3


Work is supposed to be winding down soon (knocks on wood) so I'm shooting for King's Island sometime in the next few weeks. I'll certainly get one more trip to Holiday World. Finally, it sounds like I'll be able to make it to Dollywood sometime in November as long as work doesn't tell me to move back to Michigan that weekend. If all goes well, it should be a great end of the coaster season!

 

[Lofty]

Thunderbird is faaaaaaaab. You are right, it is what all over wing coasters should be. Me and @LiveForTheLaunch greyed out at the bottom of the loop (both entering and exiting).